5 Gratitude Journals To Kick-Start Your Practice + How Experts Want You To Use Them

While other wellness practices can feel impossible to get the hang of (looking at you, meditation), gratitude journaling is a simple, straightforward method that has a pronounced impact on mood and mental health. Here are the perks of the practice, tips on how to stick with it, sample prompts and templates, and beautiful journals that'll get you excited to start writing.

Research shows that in doing so, you can relieve stress, improve mood, strengthen social ties, gain confidence, and more.

There are many benefits of regularly expressing gratitude (check out a comprehensive list here), but these are some of the things that experts say you can expect with a gratitude journaling practice in particular:

While it's easy to get swept up in the minutiae of our day-to-day routines, gratitude journaling gives us the opportunity to zoom out. "Writing out your feelings around the powerful energy of gratitude can help you rise up and beyond the fluctuations and ups and downs of daily life. And so in this way, gratitude journaling can help you to really put your life into perspective," Snyder adds.

In turn, she adds, gratitude journals can help us home in on positive experiences in the future. "They can help you to not gloss over 'the little things' i.e., the things our brain might tend to overlook because we're wired to seek out threats and attempt to protect ourselves from them."

Putting a pen to paper can be a mindful and meditative act in itself. "When you write down what you're grateful for... it helps you to really see what is here now," says Snyder. "Sometimes we need that solidity of seeing something physically written down in order to really connect to it and integrate it into our lives."

Once you get into the habit of thinking about what you're grateful for, Welsh notes that you may find yourself more openly expressing your gratitude for the people in your life. And sharing your gratitude with others can help strengthen your relationships in turn.

"Research shows that this practice can improve your confidence, help you with better problem solving as you move through the day, help you get better sleep, and even change your hormonal activity when you can frame your experiences with more balance and less catastrophe," adds Abrams.

While there is no one "right" way to keep a gratitude journal, these are the tips that our experts say can be helpful for starting a new practice or refreshing your current one:

Snyder recommends trying to carve out time to write every day—even if it's just for two minutes. "It is the small daily steps that add up to big benefits and help establish a beneficial habit for the long term," she says. If you can't commit to writing daily, don't stress; Abrams adds that journaling a few times a week can also be effective.

One way to get in the habit of journaling is to pair it with another activity you do daily, whether it's drinking your morning coffee or reading before bed. When you're first getting started, Abrams recommends gratitude journaling at a few different times of day to see which one feels most doable for your schedule.

While some people might enjoy writing on the same question every day (such as, what am I grateful for over the last 24 hours?), others might like mixing things up with different prompts and questions. When choosing your writing topics, Snyder recommends keeping them broad enough so you don't get pigeonholed into writing the same response over and over. To get a feel for a great prompt, look through the examples below!

When getting started, Abrams notes that it can be helpful to write down a certain number of things daily (i.e., three things that made you smile last week or three people who have supported you recently). Giving yourself this goal can help lend consistency to your practice and get those mental wheels turning.

"A gratitude practice can be really honest and even name how you wish you'd feel," she explains. "For example, 'I wish I could feel great about this event tonight and I hope I feel better by 5 p.m., but right now I'm a little nervous about my speech'... It's OK to not feel grateful as your only feeling. You can be truthful, tell the whole story, and offer yourself an optimistic outcome."

"What is fear teaching me about what I value? What is worry telling me about my life and what is going right and what is going wrong and what my dream is? If I approach those emotions as protective and informative, I have a very different way of dealing with them," Suzuki explained.

Finally, your journal isn't a highlight reel; it's a place where you can be honest with yourself. Experts agree you can let go of the need to write in the margins or spell everything correctly. This is only for you to see, after all.

While you certainly don't need a new journal to get started with this practice, sometimes having one that you're excited to write in can be a great motivator. These five offer a beautiful space for reflection:

If the standard directive to "write down what you're grateful for" feels lackluster, these expert-approved prompts and questions can help you uncover new sources of gratitude to celebrate.

Starting a gratitude journal is a simple way to reflect on the blessings of your life and shift your mindset toward the positive. These tips, reminders, and notebooks will make it even easier to start the practice. But remember: getting your gratitude onto the page is only step one. From there, you need to share it with the world.